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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), despite multiple
legal inquiries into global soccer governance and a massive corruption scandal,
has rehired as a consultant its former general secretary, Dato’ Alex Soosay,
less than a year after his departure as a result of this blog’s disclosure of
Mr. Soosay's attempt to undermine an independent audit by requesting tampering
with or destruction of documents.’

Mr. Soosay’s hiring, barely a month after AFC President Sheikh
Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa was defeated in elections for the head of
troubled world soccer body FIFA, suggests that many regional and global soccer
executives have yet to absorb the full impact of the corruption scandals and
care little about appearances. Mr. Salman’s own record, particularly with
regard to human rights, cast a shadow over his FIFA candidacy.

The AFC as a body has so far not been named in legal
investigations by Swiss and US authorities that have already led to multiple
indictments but is indirectly involved given that its former president,
Mohammed Bin Hammam, is at the centre of the Swiss investigation and believed
to be an unidentified co-conspirator in US indictments. It was documents
related to an independent audit into Mr. Bin Hammam’s financial management of
the AFC that Mr. Soosay allegedly sought to have altered or destroyed.

“Asian football is benefiting tremendously from Dato' Alex
Soosay's unrivalled expertise and experience of the world game in his role as a
consultant to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

He has the ability to
contribute significantly on specific projects in which he has detailed
knowledge such as the extension of the AFC building and the AFC Asian Cup. Dato’
Alex has the full support of the AFC President, General Secretary and
management in this role which will assist the future development of the AFC as
it strives to become the world's leading football confederation,” the AFC said
in a statement.

Mr. Soosay officially resigned in June 2015, two months
after this blog disclosed a statement by then AFC Financial Director Bryan Kuan
Wee Hoong that was video-taped and taken down in writing by FIFA security
officer Michael John Pride. In the statement, Mr. Kuan asserted that Mr. Soosay
had asked him to tamper with or hide documents related to enquiries by PricewaterhouseCooper
(PwC) and FIFA into management of the group by Mr. Hammam.

The audit served as the basis for FIFA’s banning for life
from all professional soccer-related activity of Mr. Bin Hammam, who also was a
member of the world body’s executive committee. The AFC announced that it was
investigating the matter which it described as FIFA rather than AFC-related
following the disclosure in this blog but never reported the outcome of its
inquiry. The AFC’s statement last June on Mr. Soosay’s departure made no
mention of the allegations or the group’s investigation.

Mr. Salman has buried the audit that recommended that the
AFC seek legal advice related to possible civil or criminal charges against Mr.
Bin Hammam and to the possibility of cancelling or renegotiating the group’s $1
billion master rights agreement with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG)
which was negotiated by the disgraced AFC official. WSG has since been renamed
as part of Lagardere Sports and Entertainment.

Mr. Soosay has repeatedly denied the allegation that he had
sought to have documents related to the PwC audit altered or destroyed.

Mr. Kuan asserted in his statements that Mr. Soosay,
concerned that he could be implicated in the Bin Hammam investigations, had asked
Mr. Kuan whether he believed that the AFC general secretary could be “blamed or
has committed crimes or violated any laws based on the information that could
be contained in the audit.” Mr. Kuan quoted Mr. Soosay as saying “protect me”
and asking, “Can you tamper or hide any documents related to me?”

In his statements, Mr. Kuan said Mr. Soosay had not
identified specific documents but that he had concluded from the conversation
that the AFC general secretary was referring to documents that he had signed,
particularly related to cash advances to Mr. Bin Hammam, a key element in the
PwC’s audit.

In response to Mr. Kuan’s refusal to act on the request, Mr.
Soosay said, according to Mr. Kuan: “I should have tampered or got rid of the
documents before PwC conducted this audit.”

Mr. Kuan suggested in the video that it was not the first
time that Mr. Soosay had made the request. "When it was confirmed PwC was
going to do the investigation, I had a separate conversation with him (Soosay)
and he told me clearly that anything related to him, don't give to them
(PwC)," Mr. Kuan said.

Mr. Kuan quoted then AFC Director Member Associations
Relations and Development James Johnson as telling him that Mr. Soosay had made
a similar request to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson has since left the Asian group to
join FIFA. Mr. Johnson, who was at the time reportedly supervising the
investigations, was not available for comment.

In his written declaration, Mr. Kuan said that “this
statement made accurately by me sets out the evidence that I would be prepared,
if necessary, to provide to a football governing body and court as a witness.”

Asked in the video why Mr. Soosay would want the documents
tampered with or hidden, Mr. Kuan said: "I'm not sure ... possibly because
he is afraid he may be accountable for signing the payment instruction and that
he didn't question it."

The PwC audit, which held out the possibility that Mr. Bin
Hammam’s management of the AFC could have involved bribery, money laundering
and busting of international sanctions, warned that “our transaction review
revealed that items sampled were, in most cases, authorised by the General
Secretary (Soosay) or Deputy General Secretary and the Director of Finance. As
signatories these parties hold accountability for the authorisation of these
transactions. We also note the Internal
Audit and Finance Committees were aware of this practice.”

Mr. Soosay’s rehiring suggests that Mr. Salman despite soccer
governance’s massive corruption scandal has no intention of getting to the
bottom of what may or may not have happened within the AFC and no apparent desire
to clean house and ensure that the group adopts the transparency and
accountability measures and structures that could bolster its ambition to
become the world’s leading football confederation.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile